Last Week with Birds

Hey guys!
Thursday was my last day at birds :( I'm pretty sad. I just got used to their routine and I felt confident doing most of the work and became pretty good friends with most of the bird people :(
However, the zoo is pretty small so I'll probably see everyone for the most part and I'll still probably go in early and help with bird food prep! I really enjoy food prep, but my thumb is getting a little sore. I think I'm holding the knife wrong or something so I'm straining it more than I should.

So next week I start reptiles! That should be really cool, I love snakes! :) It's just hard to basically start all over again with you being ignorant over everything again. But it'll be alright :) Nakeisha is going to start birds next week. She's really sad about leaving mammals, but I think she'll enjoy birds.

So the last week with birds was pretty hard! I did a lot of manual labor stuff haha. Yeah I know, I couldn't believe it either :p So the emu's are currently in the back near the bathrooms. However,  a lot of people don't realize that the park extends past the restrooms so the emus are sometimes missed by the public. Not cool :( Haha so the zoo has decided to move the emus to a new exhibit where people frolic with the kangaroos. However, we have to make/build the exhibit! There is a kinda circular outcropping from the kangaroos area with some trees and such. So they cut down most of the trees in that area and guess who had to pick up the branches? Oh yeah, this girl ;P haha There were like 5 older, strong, maintenance guys then me randomly. It was pretty funny. But I definitely worked really hard!! I was pretty proud of myself. Haha the rest of the day was pretty standard, just giving the birds their afternoon feed if they need it and to clean up the other birds dishes and exhibits. I watched the bird show that Charlie helps out with. I've seen it like 5 times already but I always enjoy it. Even if the birds aren't on their best behavior! The birds are pretty sensitive to changes in the enviroment and such. So if something is off they might not follow the routine exactly or stay up in the trees instead of coming down. Since there was a lot of chainsawing/ extra noise going on, I guess one of the birds didn't follow the routine and decided to stay out longer than they should have. Haha all part of the job!

The zoo also has a black cockatoo exhibit which I mentioned in an earlier post. James decided to get new branches for the exhibit for both enrichment and to keep the sand/substrate from getting everywhere. So the bird people went to some land behind the zoo to find large branches and such. Of course there is a freaking hill of doom that we have to climb a few times to get the branches haha. I definitely earned my lunch those days! But it's a really nice feeling to know that I can do that stuff and it makes me feel all macho and powerful! Rawr ;)

So I've been hitching rides with my friend/coworker Charlie so, as I mentioned earlier, I get there really early sometimes. I usually just start food prep for emus, brolgas, cassowaries, ect., while the zoo staff takes out food for all the birds and checks up on them. As I was preparing to prepare food (haha), James asked if I wanted to join him in the morning run! I obvi said yes! It was cool to help feed them in the morning and James was nice enough to tell me more about the birds. However, the birds were not feeling me that day. All of them kinda wanted to kill me for some reason? Even my lovely cassowary, Xena, looked like she was going to attack me. Remember when I was talking about changing the browse/branches that first day? In those "flights" there is a pink parrot next to the kingfisher and fruit dove.

I was giving food to the kingfisher and the fruit dove and this guy had his eye on me and was trying to attack me. He would follow me and bang his beak against the gate trying to hit me. Haha James was like, "Wow, he really doesn't like you..." I was like, "That's funny, he was okay with me on the first day. I must have given him bad browse and now he hates me :( " Then I looked at the bird and said, "I'm sorry if I gave you bad browse! It was my first day :("  Haha I'm so funny 
The one brolga that nipped me the first time got me again, not as hard but still enough for a scratch and a little bruise. Those guys are so strong! We then fed this really pretty sun parakeet, James told he that he was friendly and had me hold the bowl and place my hand out so he has a perch and he'll eat out of the bowl. Of course the bird jumps and my hand and starts biting my fingers... Then flies off. Haha They were definitely not feeling me. But they are pretty routine oriented so I guess it was weird so see me without the uniform shirt? Or maybe they were mad that I'm starting reptiles ;)
 
I also saw a baby bush thick-knee/curlew that just hatched! It was so cute c:

Mama Curlew

I'm definitely going to miss da burds! They were really cool and unique in their own way! But I'm excited to start reptiles!